Safer West Mercia Plan
The Commissioner’s Safer West Mercia Plan was first published in December 2021 following extensive consultation with communities and partners.
The PCC has identified a suite of performance metrics to monitor progress against the commitments in the Safer West Mercia Plan. The performance metrics are available to view here. Existing performance products, including the West Mercia Police Quarterly Performance Report will be used to report against the agreed metrics. The force’s Quarterly Performance Reports are available to view here.
PCC’s are required to produce a Police and Crime Plan within the financial year of their election. Performance reports linked to the PCC’s plan are produced for West Mercia’s Police and Crime Panel to scrutinise. These performance reports are available to view here.
Assurance and Accountability Meetings
The PCC attends regular internal briefings with senior members of force personnel to discuss different aspects of policing performance. Examples include estates, finance, HR and crime data.
The PCC holds frequent Assurance and Accountability meetings with the Chief Constable. The minutes from these meetings are published and are available at this link. The PCC also holds live public assurance sessions. These can be viewed via the West Mercia PCC Facebook page. You can view all previous sessions here.
National Priorities for Policing
The National Priorities for Policing are specified by the Government in the National Crime and Policing Measures. The key national policing priorities are:
- Reduce Murder and other homicide
- Reduce serious violence
- Disrupt drugs supply and county lines
- Reduce neighbourhood crime
- Improve victim satisfaction with a focus on victims of domestic abuse
- Tackle cyber crime
The Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) (Amendment) Order 2021 requires the Police and Crime Commissioner to provide a statement on the contribution of West Mercia Police to achieving improvements against these national priorities. The latest statement published June 2023 is available here.
HMICFRS
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service (HMICFRS) formerly known as Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) carry out inspections of police forces. These can range from individual function areas through to critical national issues and themes across the police service. HMICFRS also provide an interactive tool which allows users to compare data on recorded crimes and incidents, quality of service and resources for all police forces in England and Wales.
PEEL is the programme in which HMICFRS draws together evidence from its annual all-force inspections. The evidence is used to assess the effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy of the police.
You can see HMICFRS’s data and reports on the West Mercia area, or click here to view comments that the PCC has made in response to HMICFRS reports.
Click here for a PDF version of the West Mercia PEEL 21/22 report published in April 2022.
Complaints Handling
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) oversees the police complaints system in England and Wales. They investigate the most serious matters, including deaths following police contact, and set the standards by which the police should handle complaints. The IOPC report on complaints data for all police forces in England and Wales and the Police and Crime Commissioner is required to publish the following IOPC statistics:
As set out in the Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) (Amendment) Order 2021, the Police and Crime Commissioner is required to provide a statement on complaints handling that includes an assessment of holding to account activity, and the Police and Crime Commissioner’s own performance in undertaking specific complaint functions such as complaint reviews. The latest statement published December 2022 is available here.
Police.UK
Police.UK provide high-level statistics about crime and anti-social behaviour in West Mercia over the last three years. It also enables users to make comparisons between local areas and similar areas across England and Wales. The site also provides details of how quickly criminal cases are dealt with by magistrates’ and Crown courts in West Mercia.
Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes quarterly crime statistics with data taken from two sources: the Crime Survey for England and Wales and police recorded crime data. The ONS also publishes an annual report on crime statistics and a number of ad hoc reports on related topics throughout the year.
